Can everyone learn to sing?

most people could actually learn to sing, before everyone starts saying "yeah, but there are people who are tone deaf and will never be able to!" there are, but it's pretty rare, the first paragraph about Tone deafness on wikipedia states:

Tone deafness is the lack of relative pitch, or the inability to discriminate between musical notes. Being tone deaf is having difficulty or being unable to correctly hear relative differences between notes; however, in common usage, it refers to a person's inability to reproduce them accurately. The latter inability is most often caused by lack of musical training or education and not actual tone deafness.
 
Rebelius said:
most people could actually learn to sing, before everyone starts saying "yeah, but there are people who are tone deaf and will never be able to!" there are, but it's pretty rare, the first paragraph about Tone deafness on wikipedia states:

Tone deafness is the lack of relative pitch, or the inability to discriminate between musical notes. Being tone deaf is having difficulty or being unable to correctly hear relative differences between notes; however, in common usage, it refers to a person's inability to reproduce them accurately. The latter inability is most often caused by lack of musical training or education and not actual tone deafness.
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It answers the question though. Not every one can learn how to sing.
 
Yeah, but if you can hear the difference between musical notes, you can be taught to sing.

Which gives a better answer than just "some people are tone deaf" - I would call myself tone deaf, but I'm not really, I just can't sing. I could probably be taught to sing, but if I try now, I just get all the notes completely wrong.
 
When I refer to someone who is tone deaf, I mean someone who cannot distinguish the difference in pitch between two notes.
 
and that's pretty rare, is it not?

A girl at my work does music at Napier and she asked me if I wanted singing lessons (she had to teach people as part of her coursework) and I was like, urr, I'm tone deaf - and she explained that most people who think they're tone deaf actually just haven't been taught and can be taught to sing fine. - I still didn't take her up on the lessons though :)
 
I have no idea how rare it is. Most of the people I've ever heard sing have been musical, generally people I've met who can't sing have also been completely unmusical and probably tone deaf, but that's probably a skewed statistic.

Salami, the biggest trouble I have with repeating it, even without the music is not knowing (and hating :p) the song. I'd record myself to prove it, but I've got a cold and my voice sounds really rough.

EDIT: I should probably add that I had singing lessons for a couple of years and did quite a lot of a capella singing in choirs and exams, so I would be surprised if I couldn't repeat something without going out of tune ;).
 
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purexxevil said:
+1


If you're tone deaf, nothing anyone can do can change it!
But others may be able to improve the quality with practise
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being tone deaf doesn't actually prevent you from hitting the right tone though. Again if being taught, someone can "teach" you how to hit the right note even if it doesn't sound right to that person singing it. So yes, anyone can learn to sing. You might have an incredibly narrow range of notes you can sing in, but anyone at all can learn to sing.

AS rebelius said, most people who are told they are tone deaf aren't.

I remember going in for, i think it was violin lessons at school, most people tried out. I could play the basic thing fine but when asked to "sing" some notes I failed miserably and was told I was tone deaf. THe problem is, people think you can't repeat a note you are tone deaf and thats it.

But get a guitar, have someone play you a note and with no knowledge of which string/fret combo that note is randomly make an attempt, being wrong doesn't mean you can never find it, just you need to learn where first. I've never sung in my life properly, never wanted to never tried. You have to try, to find the notes, before you can use it again on cue, till you try and find them, you're just making random sounds, doesn't in any way mean you're tone deaf.

I play the guitar fine, I can clearly hear the different tones, i'm very clearly not tone deaf but like probably loads of people, I was told I was because i'd never practised singing before.
 
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I don't know about learn, I and just about everyone I know can sing to some degree. Mind you, my range seems to have got worse the last 18 months or so.
 
I'd say that most people can learn to sing. There are many bands who started off poorly live and have gradually improved just due to 'singing' so much. Enter Shikari are a very good example. Yes i know he shouts half the time but both Rou and the bass player can sing quite well now.
 
Around 60% of people are tone deaf and these people will never be able to sing in tune.
The first thing I did with people was to play a note on the piano and see if they could match it and if they didn't I knew I was in trouble.
If you can hit that note immediately and other notes that I play then you're in with a chance.
I have made tone deaf people sound good in a recording studio by having them sing one line at a time over and over again and adding everything together.
 
I'd say both

You can do a lot with technology these days, so if you have a so so voice then i guess you could record it on to a computer and run it through so software and it would sound great.
 
I cant sing but reckon I could. What really carries a singer is the personality. If you can sing with some feeling and mean it you can have a good voice. A good voice and making a success of it are completely different.

Look at all the great singers they all have a stage presence which is more important than just a voice imo.


dmpoole said:
Around 60% of people are tone deaf and these people will never be able to sing in tune.
The first thing I did with people was to play a note on the piano and see if they could match it and if they didn't I knew I was in trouble.
If you can hit that note immediately and other notes that I play then you're in with a chance.
I have made tone deaf people sound good in a recording studio by having them sing one line at a time over and over again and adding everything together.
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Is that really tone deafness? Sounds like they can't sing and match the notes because they dont know what they are doing rather than some inability to sing. I have a freind who is a classical singer he pretty much says that its easy, but it takes a hell of a lot of hard work. He trains 2-3 hours a day everyday.
 
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People are completely over-using the phrase "tone deaf" in this thread. The vast majority of people (and by this I mean 99%+) can learn to sing provided they are taught the right way.

The funny thing is, most people who claim to be tone deaf can whistle perfectly fine in tune because they practise whistling more - due to having a lack of confidence in their singing voice. I'm terrible at whistling because I never do it. I'll always sing/hum a tune but I know I could learn to whistle properly in tune if I spent a lot of time trying it.
 
A lot has to do with the fact that what comes out of your mouth is not what you hear through your own ears.
I can identify notes as i play the guitar but can i reproduce them with my voice if i try any more than a hum, well no but i'm not tone deaf. Tone deaf is a much over used term.
 
It depends on the condition of the organs in many ways. Providing you have normal organs, mouths, diaphragm etc. then I think anybody can train themselves or be trained to sing in tune. But what is considered good singing it totally subjective and an entirely different kettle of fish.
 
I sing a lot to myself and fairly badly too. I remember only once in my life, and it was when I was annoyed at something too, that I belted out a line of a song and people looked at me funnily and asked when I learned how to sing. No idea why I did that, I just felt like singing and I hit the notes as well and sounded good, apparently. So, there is hope I guess :D
 
Tone deaf is very rare.

Most people can be taught to produce the right notes at the right time but that is not 'singing'.

Having spent many hours with kids and adults, trying to evaluate their vocal talents, I can say without doubt that most people 'fail' because of preconceived ideas about 'singing'.

I'll sit back for a while and see what others say.
 
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